You Don't Have What It Takes : "You Aren't Good Enough "

Pastor Robarge’s Sermon

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pastor Burcham mentioned in the announcement that we have this uplifting series of messages because, by the sounds of it, You Don’t Have What It Takes and You’re Not Good Enough, it could sound a little bit depressing. Maybe you’ve heard those words and they’ve hurt you in the past. But I hope by the end of the series of messages, what you’ll find is You Don’t Have What It Takes is something to rejoice over because, for so long, we’ve worked and we’ve toiled, sometimes for not.

I have a question for you this morning. How many of you have been to the circus? I’m not talking about Cirque du Soleil. I’m talking about the three‑ring circus. How many? Raise your hand. Go ahead. Don’t be afraid. So we have some circus goers out there so that’s good because I have some interaction this morning. I know it’s early but, and it may take some verbal promptings because I don’t want to just be the only one talking right now, what do you need to have in order to be at the circus? What are the things you’re going to see? Somebody tell me. Shout out something. An elephant. We always need elephants, right, the elephants coming in. What else? Clowns. A little creepy but that’s always the top one, right? We always have the clowns. What else? What else do we have? Trapeze artist. Of course, we can’t miss the trapeze artists. Jugglers. Okay, so we’re always going to have some kind of juggling, whether it’s like chain saws or blades or knives or flaming torches, there’s always going to be somebody juggling. What about the human cannonball? That guy’s crazy, isn’t he? Why would anyone want to be in the pipe of something that’s going to blow up? But there he is, the human cannonball. What else are we missing? What’s that? That’s right, of course. We need the guy who’s going to announce. He’s going to be saying, “Alright, here in Ring No. 1 we have the juggler, we have the elephants, we have the lion tamers.” But there’s one thing that we’re still missing that I always look for at every single circus that I attend. Can anyone think of it? There’s something else we’re missing. Alright, that’s food. Of course, there’s always food. Yeah, a lion but the one I’m looking for is the tightrope walker.

Every circus I’ve been to, the tightrope walker has always amazed me because all the ones I’ve been to, they have this tightrope, this tight wire that goes across 30 feet in the air and there they are with no net to catch them. It’s kind of amazing. I remember hearing about this great family. They were called The Great Wallendas and they were known as the best tightrope walkers that there ever was.

This family, there were seven of them that performed this great trick and what they would do is there would be a number of them that were on the base of it and then there were some of them that were then on the next row and then on the top of them, almost like a little pyramid, there was a chair that sat on top of all of them and then somebody sat in that chair. And they formed this pyramid and they walked across the tightrope in this pyramid and it was amazing. And they weren’t the ones who went out there and acted like they were going to fall. They were confident. They said, “We’re the best at what we’re doing. We’re going out on this tightrope and we’re showing them that we are the best at tightrope walking.”

But tragedy came upon The Great Wallendas. Three of them one night fell from this pyramid, two of them to their death and one being constricted to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. The great patriarch of the Wallendas also didn’t give up. At the age of 73, he took his act down to Latin America and he took a tightrope or a high wire and he put it between two large buildings. There it was, at 73 years of age, he started to walk across this tightrope. But when he got to the middle, a 30-mile-an-hour wind came through between the two buildings and pushed this great patriarch off the tightrope where he fell to his death.

Even the greatest, even what we would say the greatest for what they did, still they didn’t have what it took. They still were not good enough. But how many of you this morning are walking in on a tightrope? You’re coming in with performances, you’re coming in saying, “Alright, I’m trying to juggle all these things. I’m trying to be a good parent. I’m trying to be a good child. I have all these things I’m trying to balance. Trying to be a good worker.” This performance that we have going on extends into how we view God because here we are, we have this performance we’re walking. We’re walking the same tightrope with God. We’re saying, “You know what, God. I’m here at church. I’m doing the things that I need to do. I’m reading my bible. I have my prayers and they’re all there and I know it’s because now you’re going to approve of me. Now you’re going to love me.” We have those same tightropes that we’re walking daily with all of the other things in our lives but then we take it and we put it into the realm with God and we say, “We’re still walking the performance tightrope.”

But we don’t have what it takes. God’s word through the apostle Paul, Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Can somebody repeat that with me, how about all of you, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Did Paul say, “For some have fallen?” Did he say, “For many have fallen?” He doesn’t put a segment number on it. He says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” There is not one who can walk this performance tightrope and be good enough. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But that doesn’t mean we want to try. That doesn’t mean that we keep trying. And it doesn’t mean that people over time haven’t kept trying.

Over this last week, it’s been a trying week for me. At the beginning of the week, my wife came back from Minnesota and she was kind enough, my beautiful wife, to pass along her illness to me. I was so thankful. So Tuesday, I was completely out. Wednesday, I’m still living in a cloud but I’m like, “Alright, I have to get to work. It’s my only day of the week. I have Thursday and Friday, we’re at a conference. There’s no way I can get any work done on Thursday and Friday.” And so here it is, I’m trying to work but I have a cloudy vision, a cloudy brain and at the end of it, I’m thinking, “I don’t know if I have what it takes.”

My wife kept saying, “Well, you need to rest. There’s no way you’re going to be good enough.” “Thanks. You made me like this.” And yet, there it was as Thursday came around and I love it when God’s word comes into life and it’s like, “Yeah, that’s God’s word speaking to people.” And you figure out, “That’s how I fit into this whole plan.” Because there it was, we were going through this conference and there were a couple of people mentioned that I’m going to go through in a moment, and these people were falling short, people who we usually hold up and we idolize them. We say, “Wow, look at these great people of God.” And yet they still fell short.

One of the ones I want to talk to you about is Moses. We look at Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. We see Moses is the man who took these Israelites out of the land of slavery, into this land that God was going to promise them. And there it was, as he took them out, they left Egypt. They ran into another roadblock. There’s the Red Sea. But God parts it. They walk through on dry land.

But there they are out in the wilderness. And the people start saying, “We’re hungry. We’re thirsty. Are we there yet?” Moses is like, “Alright, alright.” So he’s again taking those people under his wing and he’s saying, “Alright, God, we need to feed these people. We need to give them something.” So God provides. God gives them water to drink and God gives them manna to eat. Manna, just in case many of you don’t know, and the way I explain it, is kind of like instant mashed potato flakes. And God provided this for His people, as His good and gracious mercy upon these people, He said, “Here’s this manna, these little flakes.” And every morning, He said, “You go and gather it up for your family, enough for the day only.”

And that’s what would happen. They went out there and grabbed their flakes. They put some water in it, they mashed it all together and that’s exactly what they ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It doesn’t sound too bad when you’re hungry and you’re thinking about eating mush. “At least I’m getting fed. At least I’m getting some nourishment.” But do you see? This happened day after day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. How long would it take for you to start complaining about eating mush for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Probably not long.

And so it was with the people of Israel. They said, “You know what, Moses, we’re really, really sick of this mush. We really don’t want to eat this manna for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. Give us something else. We want meat. Give us meat. Give us meat.” And so day after day, they came to Moses complaining harshly. “Do something. You’re our leader.” And this is the point when Moses comes to God. Listen to what Moses says to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight that you lay the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing child?’ To the land that you swore to give to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep before me and they say, ‘Give us meat that we may eat.’ I’m not able to carry all these people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once.”

Moses stands before the Lord Almighty and he says, “I don’t have what it takes. Lord, I am simply not good enough.” And you go back to that statement, if you heard it, let me highlight it once again. He says, “And why have I not found favor in your sight? I’ve been doing the things that you asked me to do. I’ve led your people out of the land of slavery. I’ve continued to lead them to a place where you have guided us. I’ve been doing and doing and doing. It’s not worked. Why haven’t I found favor?” He says, “I’m not good enough.”

Our second story comes from that other man on the Mount of Transfiguration, the prophet, Elijah. The prophet, Elijah, is also a guy who is doing his job. He’s out there proclaiming the word of God. He’s out there doing his thing and he brings the word of God in circumstances where people need to hear words of repentance. But sometimes these words of repentance don’t fall on ears that necessarily want to hear.

The Queen Jezebel is one of these particular voices, these people who didn’t like the message that the prophet was bringing. The Queen Jezebel, being very ladylike, says to Elijah, “I’m going to kill you.” Yeah, not very ladylike and she may not have been the nicest lady. But he did the manly thing, as all strong men do, he fled. He left. He’s like, “I’m running. I’m getting out of here. I don’t want to die.” And then you see this interaction between him and the Lord. This is what happens. He goes and he flees. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and he came and sat under a broom tree and he asked that he might die saying, “It it enough now, O Lord. Take away my life for I’m no better than my fathers.” And he lay down under a broom tree.

The prophet, Elijah, who we idealize, here is a man of God, here is a prophet of God, and he’s doing the things that he thinks he has to do. He’s out there proclaiming the word. But he gets to that point and he says, “You know what? I don’t have what it takes, Lord.” He’s simply not good enough.

These two men of God, both following this performance track, both finding that they don’t have what it takes. We can see the performance tracks that we’re on and it’s very understandable how we can fall into the same types of things. Everything around us tells us that we’re living for a performance. We look at our jobs. I don’t know what job doesn’t have some kind of performance evaluation or performance review. And what happens at this performance review? They say, “Here are the things you’re doing well. These are the things I like.” And usually one of two things can happen. They can say, “Hey, you’re doing so well, we’re going to give you a raise. We’re going to give you a promotion or maybe we’re just going to give you a pat on the back.” Or if the review doesn’t go well and they start to list the things that they don’t like about what’s happening, they can give you a demotion. They can give you a pay cut or they can fire you.

What the lie in our current culture is that our self worth is dependent upon how we perform and what we produce. I’ll say it once again. Our worth is based upon how we perform and what we produce. We see it in all aspects of our lives. What about school? At school, there is a quarterly performance or some kind of semi-annual, whatever it might be. You get grades. Plus or minus, A through F. We’re based upon this performance evaluation constantly. It happens in our families. When we start to say, “Is he a good dad? What is he doing? Is he taking care of his child? Is he taking out the trash? Is he making sure the oil is changed in all the cars? Is he making sure the maintenance is done in the house?” This happens with fathers and mothers. It happens with kids. There’s a performance bar that’s happening and what are you doing to stay on top of your performance?

The apostle Paul could have easily been caught up in this same performance evaluation. We heard it earlier this morning and we’ll go back to it a little bit today. “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day, tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, a persecutor of the church and as to righteousness under the law, completely blameless.” Out of the 613 laws that the Pharisees held, he never was held in contempt against one. Blameless.

Paul at a certain point in time was walking that performance tightrope. He was saying, “These are the things I have to do. I have to uphold all 613 laws. I have to make sure I’m not committing an offense.” And he thought this was what was going to bring approval from God. He says, “Don’t fall into the performance trap.” Because the performance trap has two sides to it. There are times when we’re up on the tightrope. We’re doing the things we think we have to do. We’re praying. We’re going to church. We’re doing all the things that we think God is going to love us because of it.

There’s a trap on that side. There’s a trap that says, “You know what? I’m going to start to gain a false sense of my own pride. I’m going to gain a false sense and have a self righteousness within me.” That’s what happened to the Pharisees, the teachers of the law. When they thought it was their performance, when they thought everything they did was what was going to save them, they became self righteous.

And we stand on that tightrope sometimes and we start to look around at all the people who aren’t doing the tightrope things, aren’t doing the performance things for God, aren’t going to church, aren’t praying, aren’t reading their bibles and we start to look at them and say, “Poor you. God doesn’t love you.” And we may not say it with our words, but we may speak it with our actions. Because there’s another side to that performance trap, when you’re down off the tightrope, when you haven’t been in church or when you go sporadically and you haven’t prayed and you haven’t read your bible and you start to think, “God isn’t going to love me. I’m not going to find favor with God because I haven’t been performing.”

And those are the people we see who are down. There’s a common phrase. “But when I clean myself up, I can get back to church and then God’s going to love me.” “When I start to pray, then God’s going to love me.” “When I start to read my bible, then God’s going to love me.” The apostle Paul also speaks to this and it’s just amazing. In Galatians 1:15, this is what he says, “But when God who had set me apart before I was born has called me by His grace.”

That’s the amazing thing, It’s not about the performance we’re walking. It’s not about the things we’re doing in order to think that we have some approval from God. The apostle Paul has said that earlier in the Philippians passage, he says, “I consider all of that to be rubbish.” Garbage. Filth. Consider it nothing compared to the faith from God.

It’s not on our own. It’s by faith through grace. We are so concerned about walking the performance tightrope but we don’t have what it takes. We’re not good enough. There is one who could. There was one in all the things that we start to look at and all the things when we start to say, “I’m trying to stay up on this tightrope.” We don’t have to because one has done it for us. Jesus Christ who has come to take on sin for us, to be sin for us, to take all of our sin upon Him, to go to the cross and to die so that we can live. So we no longer have to walk the tightrope. We no longer have to perform for God. But by faith through grace we’re saved.

It’s no longer “when I can” but it’s when God has. I think it’s sometimes easy for us to verbalize what we’ve kind of been thinking and what I’ve been sharing with you. So I have a statement that I want you to repeat after me because I believe when you verbalize, it helps to internalize. So I want you to repeat after me. “When God accepts me in Christ.” When God accepts me in Christ. “I am no longer living,” I am no longer living, “for His approval.” For His approval. “But from His approval.” But from His approval.

It’s the key here today because the performance thing, going to church, reading your bible, praying, all good things, all good things that strengthen and build up a Christian’s life but not to perform for God’s approval but from it. Amen.

Copyright 2010 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church